You Breathing Easy: meditation and breathing techniques to help you relax, refresh, and revitalize

by Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz.

2 discs. 2+ hours.

BCD 332.6609 Cohan

House of Cards: a tale of hubris and wretched excess on Wall Street

by William D. Cohan. Read by Alan Sklar. 20 discs.

25 hours.

"CNBC financial reporter Cohan's account of the sudden collapse of the Wall Street firm Bear Stearns last March is largely interview based. This fine production is undoubtedly only the first of many books on the current market crisis, and Alan Sklar is the perfect narrator for conveying the tough vernacularism of these (almost-entirely) male voices. The cast is large, hard to keep track of, and through the book's long first part—a "minute-by-minute" reconstruction of the collapse—each voice recounts a variation on the same basic epiphany: "We're finished." The voices merge into one, and what comes across most distinctly is Sklar's rendition of the Wall Street personality: brusque, cynical, assured to the point of arrogance—the voice of hubris."

BCD 539.7258 Greene

The Elegant Universe: superstrings, hidden dimensions, and the quest for the ultimate theory

by Brian Greene. Read by Erik Davies.

13 discs. 15+ hours.

BCD 658.401 Spence

It’s Not What You Sell, it’s What You Stand For: why every extraordinary business is driven by purpose

Madness Under the Royal Palms: love and death behind the gates of Palm Beach

by Laurence Leamer. Read by Todd McLaren.

9 discs. 11+ hours.

"A winter resident since 1994, the author gains the trust of his subjects, playing tennis with them and attending their parties. Such firsthand experience is supplemented by newspaper articles and interviews with scores of men and women who, although usually guarded, are unusually open to Leamer …. The book's highly visual vignettes-dominated by divorce, infidelity, excessive drinking and violence-produce a depressing picture of sad, angry, insecure and frequently nasty people hiding behind empty smiles, luxury cars and socially invisible servants. Leamer reflects: "Like [Henry] James, I found that few of the lives have the beauty of the surroundings, or the depths of the artistic vision that inspired this island." Some readers may find this book a penetrating portrayal of a privileged segment of the American population; others might regard it as a book-length gossip column."